All posts tagged app

What’s occurring with the weather these days? One minute it’s cold and wet, the next blisteringly hot. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce… SWINTER – a freak seasonal hybrid that’s throwing up a whole host of challenges – sartorial, culinary and even domestic.

I’m no Michael Fish/John Kettley/Ian McKaskill (no? #showingmyageagain) but something strange is afoot meteorologically speaking. Autumn is no more – it’s been bullied out of town by this brazen, insensitive upstart.

As you would expect a Google search on climate change spews up a plethora of sites – educational, political and charitable. The effects of climate change are profound (as far reaching as ‘far reaching’ can ever be) and impactful and not to be trivialised in a ‘poor me, I don’t know what to wear/eat’ kind of way.

That said, I’m afraid that’s exactly how I’m rolling with this one. The weather has always been a hot topic of conversation for us Brits. Historically I’m not really sure why. I guess it must be something to do with British restraint and needing safe fodder for polite chit-chat. It certainly didn’t used to be the unpredictable atmospheric carnival it seems to have morphed into of late.

So, presumably, as a nation we’re talking about it even more now. If the RumbleChat office is anything to go by, that is definitely the case. Every day starts with a dissection of our local climate and the impact it has on our daily meanderings. We are human barometers who obsess about the weather with a farmer-like intensity.

What to wear? Just yesterday I set off for an early doors meeting in the Big Smoke, sporting a thermal socks/ankle boot combo and clutching an umbrella. Leaving my meeting late morning, I was greeted by the sun, with his hat on, mockingly beating down on my winter-clad self. By the time I got back to the office I was very sweaty, a tad grumpy and in dire need of an outfit change. It brings a whole new angle to the trans-seasonal wardrobe conundrum.

I am also finding it is playing havoc with my appetite, or more specifically, what I fancy to eat at any given time. A hearty stew is just the ticket when you’re cold and bedraggled, whereas a super-food salad is much more befitting for a balmy Mediterranean eve.

Don’t even get me started on the ‘is it too early to put the heating on?’ debate. As I work from home a lot, I threw caution to the wind a fortnight ago and took the thermostatic plunge…only to return home the next day to an uncomfortably furnace-like house and the kids running around topless in the pleasantly warm garden. I just can’t seem to get it right on any front.

And my phone’s no use. I constantly refer to it for weather hints and tips but Apple are clearly using someone even less in-the-know than I to inform their weather app. Check it in the morning and it says one thing, then two hours later (once you’ve set about starting your day) it’s completely contradicting itself… presumably after looking out of the window and realising how wrong its initial finger in the air prediction really was. Utter shambles springs to mind.

So, what about you RumbleChatters? Are you struggling like me or can you give me some tips on climate management for beginners?

Following on from last week’s vociferous scourge on the new food app for lardy gamers, I felt it only right that I should offer up the worthier side of food related apps. As Apple have drummed into our subconscious, whatever your [dietary] requirements, ‘there’s an app for that. The plethora of sustenance related apps is astounding; there’s definitely no ‘one-size-fits-all’ ethos going on here. Here’s a selection of the several million (I exaggerate…but only slightly) that I stumbled upon in the name of research.

Best for Foodies in training: Foodgawker

A veritable feast of food porn. The mobile counterpart to foodgawker.com, which collects recipes from various food bloggers, and presents them in a mouthwatering photo gallery format. Whether you want to make good food, or just drool over it, foodgawker is an excellent resource. It’s also a great way to discover your next favourite food blog.

Best for meal planning: FoodPlanner

Make it easy to swerve the crisp aisle next time you hit the supermarket. FoodPlanner organises your daily meals and allows you to upload your own recipes and download meal ideas from top recommended sites. This clever little app then compiles your shopping list of ingredients from the recipes you’ve chosen. FoodPlanner can store multiple lists and recipes to add variety into your healthy eating habits. Handy eh?

Best for wannabe Flintstones: Primal Paleo

It seems like every other person I meet is Paleo eating these days. Maybe it’s the Game of Thrones effect, but this caveman diet is taking over the world! Billed as ‘the only nutritional approach that works with your genetics to help you stay lean, strong and energetic’ the ideology is more appealing than the reality (no coffee or cake). For those keen to give it a try, Primal Paleo offers the perfect pocket guide to succeed.

The app includes key information about the core principles of Paleo living, along with recipe ideas and a searchable list of Paleo foods. Find out which foods are in season and choose from a selection of exercises to complement the diet.Connect to the rest of the Primal community through the app to share your meal ideas, lifestyle tips and find words of wisdom from other users.

Best for eating out: Mint Nutrition

We all love to eat out, but it can be a sure-fire way of piling on the pounds. Mint Nutrition keeps track of your calorie chomping whenever you’re out for dinner and guides you to more healthy options. Search for foods at your favourite restaurants and also create your own virtual plate, detailing your most popular menu choices. So you can work out how much time on the treadmill you need to offset that sticky toffee pudding.

Best for vegetarians: Go Veggie!

This app is ideal for veggies wanting to keep their diet balanced and varied. Users can browse over 100 recipes ranging from basic to elaborate. Each dish is accompanied by a step-by-step guide. Additional features include an ingredient and recipe finder, recipe index and the ability to create individual shopping lists. Go Veggie! also explains how to transform protein-rich foods such as tofu, seitan and tempeh into tasty and nutritious dishes.

Best for staying hydrated: Carbodroid

Everyone knows that we should drink eight glasses of water a day, but if you’re anything like me, this is an abstract, rarely achieved target. You can set your daily goal for water intake and tap the cup or bottle icon to track your sipping habits. You’ll receive reminders to drink water at regular intervals and if you drink enough, the cute animated droid shares in your happiness. It’s a simple concept, but a brilliant one that motivates you to keep drinking water in a fun and accessible way.

Tap in your age, gender, ­lifestyle ­details and weight-loss goal and you’re away. It’ll set a daily ­calorie limit and help you track your food and ­exercise throughout the day. A ­potentially ­effective weight-loss tool, if you’re prepared to be ­brutally honest.

Best for garnering food safety knowledge: NutritionTips
Did you know that cut melon must be thrown out after two hours? Or that the leanest beef cuts include round steaks and roasts? Or that oysters contain protein, calcium, phosphorus and iron? This colorful app has fun factoids a-plenty to steer you towards a safe and healthy diet. Each tip is written on a sleek Post-it look-alike. Most visually pleasing. Simply swipe the page or shake your device for a new tidbit.

This recently discovered App has kept all of us at RumbleChat really busy this week! It’s a great little creation called Forkly for foodies to discover local restaurants, cafes and other eateries that have been rated by others. You can search through your feed and click on foods that you ‘want’, and read how others have rated different places to eat.

You can also rate places you have visited and share your tastes to influence other people! It’s become really useful to find the best local places to eat – a word of mouth recommendation is so valuable!

Over at RumbleChat HQ, we are fascinated to see how the Angry Birds franchise has expanded beyond the highly addictive app. Rovio, the Finnish creaters of the app, have already partnered up with the kings of the golden arches themselves – McDonalds – to provide Angry Bird games within some of their restaurants in China.

Now they have started selling Angry Birds fizzy drinks in Finland, and soon they will be expanding to Australia and New Zealand. But the biggest news is that they have outsold fizzy pop kings Pepsi and Coca-cola in some of their stores!

So RumbleChatters, do you see the appeal of buying a fizzy drink JUST for the fact that it is associated to a fictitious character, an app, or your Smartphone?

Here at RumbleChat Towers we are always on the look out for new apps, gadgets, and techy inventions. Especially if they are food & drink based! We do like a wee tipple of a weekend evening. Come to think of it, we like a wee tipple most evenings… and this gives no shortage of inspiration with 500 drinks recipes (or a whopping 3000 for the iPad) based on your choice of base spirit… The app is FREE, it remembers what you have had in the past and so bases future recommendations on your historical preferences. You can select according to what mood you are in, the weather, the time, what is trending in the world at that moment, or what colour you fancy. Also you can create a shopping list or input what ingredients you have in your larder and it will suggest a selection of inspiring recipe options!

Meta

Latest Tweets

Meet RumbleChat

RumbleChat is a team of experienced marketing and PR professionals, who share a passion for delicious things. We have joined forces to help food and lifestyle companies reap the rewards of digital success.